1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a projector.
2. Related Art
There has been known a projector that includes a light source device, an optical modulator that modulates a light beam irradiated from the light source device in accordance with image information to form an optical image; and a projection optical device that projects the optical image in an enlarged manner.
In the projector, when dust, lamp black or the like is attached on a surface of the optical modulator, image quality of a projected image is deteriorated. In addition, since the optical modulator such as a liquid crystal panel is generally heat-sensitive, the optical modulator may be deteriorated due to heat caused by irradiation of a light beam from the light source device.
With such a background, to ensure stable image quality of the projected image and to efficiently cool the optical modulator, an arrangement has been suggested in which the optical modulator is disposed in a sealed structure, air in the sealed structure is circulated by a circulation fan, and heat in the air in the sealed structure is released to the outside of the sealed structure by a thermoelectric conversion element such as a peltier element (see, for example, Document: JP-A-2000-298311).
In the arrangement disclosed in Document, the thermoelectric conversion element, the optical modulator and the circulation fan are disposed in order of mention along an air-flowing direction in the sealed structure.
However, in the sealed structure, when the circulation fan sucks air around the optical modulator and sends air that is cooled on a heat absorbing surface of the thermoelectric conversion element to the optical modulator, the cooled air is likely to stay between the thermoelectric conversion element and the optical modulator due to the arrangement in which the optical modulator is interposed between the thermoelectric conversion element and the circulation fan. Accordingly, it is difficult to send the air that is cooled to low temperature on the heat absorbing surface of the thermoelectric conversion element to the optical modulator while maintaining the low temperature, and thus difficult to cool the optical modulator efficiently. In order to cool the optical modulator efficiently, for example, rotation speed of the circulation fan needs to be increased or power consumption of the thermoelectric conversion element needs to be increased.
Therefore, there has been a demand for a technology that realizes efficient cooling of optical components such as the optical modulator while stably securing an image quality of a projected image.